Chapter Text
"C'mon, Lukey, you're going to your uncles Niall and Liam today," Louis coos at his 2 year old son.
"Papa no come?" the little boy with bright blue eyes asks behind his dummy.
"No, baby. I have to work today, remember?"
Lucas' bottom lip starts trembling and his big eyes fill with tears.
"Aw, baby don't cry. You're going to make papa cry too," Louis sighs sadly.
He picks up his toddler from the changing table and sets him on his hip. Lucas starts crying and clings against Louis' uniform tightly.
After a lot of fuss Louis managed to get his son in his carseat and went on his way to his friends who were nice enough to offer to watch Lucas.
He checks up on Lucas every now and then in the rearview mirror to make sure he's still alright. Every time he checks he sees his boy clutching onto his monkey stuffie and sniffling.
When they finally arrive at Niall and Liam's apartment, Lucas' sobbing went down completely.
He rings the bell and waits until his always-happy friend open the door, "Lukey!" Niall smiles at the small boy in Louis' arms.
Lucas ducks his head down in his papa's neck to hide his still wet face from his favorite uncle.
"What's wrong?" Niall asks with worry.
"I guess he doesn't want to leave me," Louis sighs, "I can't be late on my first day, though."
"Lukey, uncle Li made cookies yesterday especially for you!" Niall tries to bribe his godson to let go of his papa.
Lucas narrows his eyes and looks behind Niall, "Fow me?"
"Yes, only for you, my sweet boy!"
He looks over Niall's shoulder again, "No mommy, hewe?" he whispers anxiously.
Louis heart breaks and he's sure Niall's is breaking too. He hugs his son tighter and kisses his cheek.
"No, baby. Mommy isn't here, she's never going to get near you again, monkey." Louis explains with a trembling voice.
Niall scrunches his nose to hide his discomfort, "Lukey, you're always safe with us, you know that right?"
The small boy looks over at Niall and nods carefully.
Niall tries to reach out for Louis to hand him over but the boy keeps a tight grip on Louis' shirt.
"Papa no go," He cries again.
"Baby, I'll be back before you even know it," Louis coos.
Liam made his way to the door too when Niall was gone rather long and he hears his nephew crying, "What's happening? Why is my favorite monkey crying?"
Lucas looks up with big tears dripping down his cheeks.
"He doesn't want me to go and I'm going to be late on my first day, " Louis stresses.
Liam makes his way back into the house and returns quickly with a homemade cookie in his hand, "I have a cookie but I'm not hungry, do you know anyone who loves chocolate chip cookies?" He asks Niall and Louis.
Lucas looks at the cookie before looking at Louis, debating what to do.
Louis chuckles, "I don't know Li, I'm sure I can think of someone, maybe Ni?"
"No, uncle Lili, me! Me wan' cookie!" Lucas jumps in Louis arms excitedly.
"C'mon than, cookie monster," Liam reaches out to take him from Louis.
After taking his dummy out and giving his dad a slobbery kiss on his cheek he lets Liam take him, Louis gives him a small peck on his forehead and hands over his small backpack with all his stuff to Niall.
"Thank you so much, I don't even know how I can return this favor!" Louis thanks them.
"You don't have to, Lou. Now get going, you're already late," Niall ushers his best friend out of their apartment.
"Here, Lou, take this! I'm guessing you didn't bring any lunch as usual," Liam smiles and hands over a batch of home made cookies. Ever since Lucas is living full time with Louis and money is tight he tends to skip meals to save money and make sure his son has everything.
Louis smiles sheepishly before taking the cookies, "Yeah, I forgot."
"Sure, now go," Liam rolls his eyes.
"Call me if anything's wrong!"
"We will!"
"Bye!"
Louis sighs and makes his way to the station, where he's beginning his first day being transferred to a new precinct.
He's ten minutes late when he arrives at the front desk, "Hi, I'm Louis Tomlinson, I'm transferred here," He rushes out.
"Hi, welcome, you're on Chief Styles' team. It's on the fifth floor, his assistant will help you from there," She smiles kindly.
Louis nods and smiles back, trying to make a great first impression aside from being late.
"I'm Laura by the way, if you ever need something."
"Thanks Laura, I'll keep that in mind," he smiles back at her.
So far everyone seems friendly, he thinks.
He takes the elevator to the second floor, when he walks out there's a lot of officers running around doing whatever they're doing. Louis finally finds his way to the desk in front of the office with the name Styles on it.
"Hi, I'm new here," Louis introduces himself to the assistant.
The guy looks up and sighs. He takes his phone and calls a number, "New guy here for you, Mr. Styles," He says in a fake kind voice.
He spoke too soon, not everyone is friendly as it seems.
"You can go in there," He points to the door behind him with an obvious fake smile.
He gathers all his confident and knocks on the door before hearing a 'Come in!'
"Hi, I'm Louis T-"
"Tomlinson, yes, you're fifteen minutes late. On your first day," His new chief raises his voice a bit.
Louis is taken back by the tone but also by the looks, his last chief was 50 years old. Chief Styles is certainly not 50 years old, and it doesn't hurt to look at him, at all.
"I-I'm sorry Chief Styles, I had some private problems," He apologizes in a small voice.
"Don't we all have private problems, detective Tomlinson?" The chief asks with a scoff.
"Yes, sir. I'm sorry, sir."
"You're doing paperwork for now. Kevin, my assistant, will show you to your desk and your partner will help you with any questions, understood?"
"Yes, sir," Louis looks down in shame.
"You're dismissed," Harry sighs.
Once he's outside the office he sighs too, his first impression sucked. His certain his chief hates him already, for a second Louis thought he looked nice but his way of dealing with things is everything but nice.
"I'll show you to your desk," the assistant, Kevin, says little bit happier than before.
"Thanks, I'm Louis, by the way," Louis introduces himself for the sake of being polite. His mother raised him right.
"I'm Kevin, and your partner is Zayn Malik," a detective with black hair and the sharpest jawline he's ever seen looks up and smiles friendly.
"Hey, I'm Zayn indeed. Welcome to our precinct!"
Louis smiles at the enthusiastic partner, "Hi, I'm Louis, thanks."
Kevin glares a bit at Louis and walks away right after which leaves Louis with a confused face.
"Don't worry, he doesn't like people very much, it's in his nature to be a bitch to new ones," Zayn chuckles.
"Oh, alright, I thought I did something wrong already," Louis sighs in relief and sits down at the desk at the opposite of Zayn.
"So, late on your first day? Bet Harry scared you," Zayn laughs.
"Harry?"
"Chief Styles, yeah I'm sorry, we're friends outside of work," Zayn explains.
"Well, he wasn't exactly happy," Louis blushes.
"It's okay, bud. He isn't one to hold a grudge or anything and he isn't really that uptight. Well, at work he is, but he's a nice person outside of work."
"That's nice to hear, my last chief was a disaster."
"Why did you transfer, because of that chief, or?"
"No, I've had some private problems which involved my child, I moved from West-London to get a fresh start and give him a better future," Louis smiles tightly.
"What's his name?"
"Lucas," Louis answers with a proud smile plastered on his face.
"How old is he?" Zayn smiles too when he sees his partner's face light up.
"Turned two in July. Wait, I have a picture of him with me," Louis smiles and opens his bag to get the frame out to set on his desk.
"Gosh, you're giving me baby fever and I don't even have a girlfriend yet," Zayn gushes, "How cute can a kid be?"
"He is indeed very cute, he's the reason I'm late too," Louis sighs.
"What happened?"
"I've been home for like a month now and he has issues with me leaving ever since his mother left," Louis explains with pain in his heart. His kid has been through so much over two years.
"Wow, that's crazy, lad. You're a single parent?" Zayn asks.
"Yeah, it's not easy but my friends help out wherever they can. I'm sorry I got us on paperwork today, I'll try to drop off Lukey earlier tomorrow," Louis says apologetically.
"Don't worry, Louis. You got enough on your plate to worry about, I won't add any stress to that," Zayn smiles.
"Thanks, mate. I'm glad I got you as a partner."
"I'm glad my last partner retired and got you instead. He was always talking about his birds and his basement," Zayn laughs.
Louis laughs too, "I don't have any birds or a basement, so."
"I'm glad, now let's get started before Harry has our asses," Zayn playfully rolls his eyes and starts explaining everything he should know.